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Pine oil leaves slight discolouration, otherwise no change in colour for the others.

Exactly. Use pine oil for stripping paint off minis, not this. Though after a half evening of smelling that mini on the shelf across from my desk, I'm thinking of switching to stripping paint with Purple Power or Simple Green.

So, I saw the ghast sitting in the ipa at my desk and suddenly remembered this experiment. It was almost foiled when I realized I had moved my control figures and couldn't find them!

Day 29 results:

Figure soaked in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) 70% is now nearly as hard as the figure soaked in denatured alcohol (EToH). Despite early promising results, it did not, contrary to my expectations, get firmer than the EToH-soaked one. This could possibly be due to the differing concentrations of the two alcohols.

Figure soaked in pine oil cleaner (normally used for stripping paint): Test failure. No change in firmness. Instead, the figure is just stained yellow and smells like a pine scented ornament.

Now to let the two new test subjects sit and outgas for a few days. My theory is that as the solvents leached out the plasticiser, they've displaced it, and the figures may harden further as the solvents evaporate.

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Here's another test someone can try.

Since summer time is on our doorstep (for the Northern hemisphere). What would happen to a mini left on a car's dashboard on a sunny day? Several days even.

Hypothesis: Initially super droopy because of the heat itself, but that same heat can force some of the plasticizers to evaporate.

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Don't know about a consensus, but my best results have been obtained by using new* 91% isopropyl alcohol, immersing the figure completely, and leaving it for 8-24 hours.

* After I have used a batch of alcohol once, it seems not to leach plasticizer quite as well. I suspect that this might be because there is already some plasticizer in the mix, which would reduce the net transfer of the chemical out of the figure.

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Put a goblin warchanter in a ziplock bag with 99% isopropol for a couple of weeks, pulled it out, then boiled it to get its ankle in the right spot. Definitely helped, no apparent damage, no loss of re-posability.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Club

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I had a mini that had ended up 'extra floppy' after being left in cheap, acetone-free nailpolish for too long, and have now given it an extended stay in IPA, and can confirm that it has firmed up at least to what it was before I was careless with it.

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Ok, here is my first NMM paint job. I'm not sure if I dislike the technique, or just picked a bad mini to try it on first. I found it a bit fiddly and frustrating with all of the dully cast spikey bits. I did a pretty quick TT quality job on everything not NMM, so I know there are a lot of places to improve there.

Also, I feel like the photos make it look better than it really is. I'm pretty happy with how the front of the armor turned out, but the shield and shoulder pauldrons were frustrating.

Would truly appreciate any feedback on improving the quality of my NMM!
I'll be doing Mangu next and tracking in the same WIP thread.

I was using this to try a different skin color which I like and I believe I was going to do a bit more detailed TMM but got side tracked. After several months of no work on him, I decided to get him "done" to tabletop level. Here are some shaky iPad photos. C&C welcome.

This guy was to experiment on achieving realistic light colors on a fairly smooth surface (the apron in this case). After several different tries I was happy with the result...then like normal he sat on the paint desk for months. So I decided to finish him to low tabletop level and wash him in ArmyPainters midtone shade which led to a big tied mark. But he is good enough for my sons toy box. C&C appreciated.

The third and final mini from the Layer Up! LTPK, Julie Guthrie’s Hajad the Pirate:

Not gonna try for any better images, because then you would see how badly I messed up the eyes...

Mostly by the book, but I skipped the lining as my little brush was becoming temperamental. Of the three minis in this kit, this is the one I was most looking forward to, as it has the most exposed skin of the three (one of my problem areas). Think I oversold the abs a bit too much though.

Based on issues with the previous minis, I elected to basecoat both weapon blades with Ebony Flesh before applying the metallic. The Filigree Silver included in the kit was too watery to play nice with bare Bonesium, and in any case it was difficult for me to see where the paint actually stuck. Plus, it makes lighter metallics pop.

It was nice to see darker flesh tones included in this kit. The darkest (non-dark elf) skin tone I had available before was Tanned Skin, but my attempts to mix in darker paints always resulted in a weird shade of sadness.

All in all, this kit was a good learning experience. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, and it was neat seeing the colors build up with each layer. The cartoons were cute too. I just hope that my technique improves moving forward. And that painting eyes gets easier.